E komo mai!! Our dream of living on the island of Hawaii came to fruition six magnificent weeks ago. It was something we have been dreaming about since 2007 when we visited for the first time. During a gray, wet, wintry week of January, my husband and I boarded a plane in Chicago and landed in the plumeria scented, warm and gentle hands of Madame Pele who was a gracious hostess to us. She helped my husband and me rebuild our bond after a year of mostly just cohabitating. Like many, our lives had become so busy and taxing on our relationship. We had sold a home, built a home, my husband had survived job cuts from a company buyout, and I had been working 6-7 days a week for the entire year before. We were tired, weary, and not connected with each other. From the moment we stepped onto the stairs that led down from our plane, when we could take in our first breath of the warm nighttime air, we could feel the mana. We exhaled a year's worth of stress. Hawaii's mana healed our weary souls and helped us to find the joy in each other again.
In 2010 we returned for another visit. This time we brought our twelve year old daughter. We were curious if we would still feel the same life force, and we definitely did. There is an electricity in the air. Some people feel it in their bellies, while others tell me it just takes their breath away. For me, it encapsulates my entire chest, filling me so completely that I'm sure I'll burst. Our daughter loved Hawaii as well and we were grateful for that. It was during this trip that we began talking about moving to Hawaii "someday."
In the summer of 2014, when our daughter was turning 16, we returned once more. When we stepped off the plane that time, we felt like we had finally returned home. We had missed this island and felt drawn to it in a visceral way. We had not been able to conceive how much we missed it until we had returned. We both felt this so strongly that when we went back to Illinois, we started telling people we would be moving there "for real." We knew that we didn't want to uproot our daughter during high school, so it was still a couple of years in the future for us, but it was definitely going to happen.
No one really believed us. My husband had never lived more than 30 minutes away from his mom. We had our jobs there, our house, and the south suburbs of Chicago was the only home our daughter had ever known. Our relatives would chuckle and roll their eyes as we spoke about moving. Time passed and our daughter continued to grow, becoming more independent and ready to make her own life choices. As she spoke of going out of state to college, we began speaking of when to put our house on the market. As the spring of her senior year approached, we put our house up for sale.
We had a series of events that had to occur in the correct sequence. First, we had to start the process of bringing our two dogs and cat. This is a process that takes a minimum of four months. Then, our house had to sell. However, it couldn't sell (or at least close) before our daughter graduated from high school. Then, I had to find a job. Meanwhile, my husband had to approach his employer to see if they would allow him to work remotely. After solidifying our employment, it was time to find a place to live. Then the real work began of arranging for the actual move. All of this happened as our daughter was completing her final few months of high school. She had to choose a college, go to prom, and graduate.
The housing market in the south suburbs of Chicago had not yet recovered from the real estate fall out in 2008. We watched houses in our neighborhood, which had the same floor plan as ours, and listed for less, sit for months without being sold. So, when we put our house up for sale in April, we had plans for it to take 6 months or so. However, our house sold in 5 days. As soon as we accepted the offer, I began looking for jobs. There is only one skilled nursing home on the Kona side of the island, which was the side I really wanted to live on. This rehabilitation center had a full time opening for a speech pathologist. I remember sitting on my sofa in Illinois, feeling a huge ball of excitement rising from the pit of my stomach up to my throat as I applied for the position. I could not believe the gift that laid before me!
During this time I had reached out to speech pathologist's on the island through our professional association network. A few wonderful ladies responded to me and answered my multitude of questions. There was one SLP in particular who was more than willing to give me information; she answered questions I didn't even know I had. She shared my love of long emails and we continually corresponded. After a few exchanges, she mentioned that her company was looking for another full time SLP. It turns out it was the same place I had already applied to! A couple of very long weeks later, during which time I was very impatient (just ask my new supervisor), I was offered the position!
My husband had been speaking in generalities for quite a while to his employer about working remotely. It came time, however, to have a concrete conversation. His immediate supervisor laughed when he said he'd like to move to Hawaii but still work for this local bank in Illinois. My husband smiled but explained how it would all work, and by the end of that conversation, his boss was in his corner. It had to go up the ranks, but right away the Human Resources Director jumped on board. As the request traveled up the chain of command, there was not one person who hesitated in saying yes. They valued him and the quality of his work too much to lose him.
Once the employment pieces of the puzzle were secured, it was time to find a place to live. From everything I had read on message boards, websites, and even in books, Craigslist was the place people seemed to post home rentals. On the island of Hawaii there are very few landlords who allow people with pets to live in their rentals. I scoured it daily and there was only one house that looked like it would be a good fit for us with our pets. We wanted to rent for a year or so before buying a house. This would give us time to make sure our idea of paradise really was all we hoped it would be, and give us a chance to find the best neighborhood for our needs. I had concerns about this rental being right for us, but figured we could live anywhere for a year. I was actually relieved when the landlord opted for another resident.
As a result, my husband and I decided we were going to go ahead and buy a house. I made flight arrangements for my mom, who lives in Tennessee, to meet me in San Francisco, and we would fly from there to Kona together. She came along because my husband had to stay home for our daughter. My mom was my biggest supporter even though she was secretly dreading the thought of living even farther away from me than she already did. She went to all 30 homes that I went to; she listened to me dissect each home to determine if it was the right one for my husband and me. She patiently waited for me to make a decision, giving me the space to do so without giving too strong of opinions. I could not have done it without her!
We had not found a home that fit all of our needs; we had decided on the one that would be the best fit, but someone put in an offer just before us. So now we had to choose from others that didn't really come close to matching our needs list. At 1:00 in the morning of our last full day in Hawaii, I was scouring the real estate website from our realtor, beginning to question if this truly was our destiny, or if we should stop and "come to our senses" the way our family was hoping. It was literally just as I was saying to myself, "Does the island really want us?" that the website refreshed and brought up a new listing. I looked at the photos, read the description, and emailed the realtor saying, verbatim, "I will put an offer in on this house without even seeing it." From its description it fit every single one of our needs, On top of that, it had a full view of the ocean. We did not even put that on our list of "wants" because we were trying to be practical, although both of us, of course, would never turn down such a gift!
Our realtor arranged for a showing at 9am. It lived up to its photos and description, except for the view, which was far better in person than the photos showed. So, by 10am of that morning our offer was accepted. As my mom and I drove back to our hotel, a rainbow crested over us. It was not raining, nor did it seem particularly humid or wet. It was Hawaii's smile to let me know that we did belong!
I'm mentioning all of this to show how the island really does make a way for you if she welcomes you to her home. I'm convinced that we belong here; every part of our sequence of events worked out perfectly. This island makes both my husband and me feel at ease and accepted. These are two feelings that are fairly foreign concepts for both of us, but we find it here. It seems that many others do as well. The transplanted people here mostly seem to have one thing in common: they didn't really fit where they were before. Maybe they were loners, or a bit eccentric. Maybe they don't want to conform, or maybe they don't know how. This is part of the beauty of this island. She's an island with fewer white sand beaches than the other islands so she may not be considered as beautiful to outsiders (we know different!). She's the one that is still growing and changing, not quite sure how she will end up herself, (we appreciate the courage she shows in her willingness to evolve!). She's the island that wouldn't settle on only one climate so there are 11 (a little something for everyone!). She's an island that only asks that her 'aina be cared for, that her native bloodline be respected, and that her own eccentricities be accepted.
Only on Hawaii will be a blog about all of the wonderful and unique experiences that we have had and will continue to have as we live our dream here on the leeward side of paradise. So, sit back, drink a Mai Tai, feel the cool breeze, hear the waves of the ocean, and smell the sweet air. If you're not here with us, then after reading my blog, make plans to come here for your next vacation. Trust me.
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